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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321160">Elevator Game</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland/pseuds/EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland'>EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Canon Divergent, Halloween, Halloween Special, cause i can</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:49:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,756</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27321160</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland/pseuds/EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>2020 Halloween Special O.o</p>
<p>A dare from Phichit sends Yuuri into another world.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Elevator Game</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The “/“ is used in place of check marks</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>DING</p>
<p>It had started with a game of Truth or Dare with Phichit and his friends in their dorm room. All of their most exciting nights started with a few rounds of the game before it devolved into something stupid, like going out to the 24-hour diner in full drag or signing up for non-refundable pole dancing classes. Yuuri at least had enough respect to not give crazy dares, instead opting to have his “victims” order food for him. Pizza gave him far more happiness than humiliating someone. He also rarely picked the dare option, preferring to answer any question to putting himself at risk of humiliation.</p>
<p>“Would you buy a blow-up doll of Victor Nikiforov?”</p>
<p>Almost any question.</p>
<p>“Can I take the dare instead?” Yuuri asked, hoping his face wasn’t as red as it felt.</p>
<p>Phichit smirked. A bad sign. Phichit was always waiting for the opportunity to dare him to do something. The last time he fell for that was months ago, which resulted in him taking pole dancing classes. Not that they weren’t interesting and they did improve his skating, but it was still embarrassing to glance around and catch strangers staring.</p>
<p>“The Elevator Game.”</p>
<p>This was how Yuuri found himself standing alone in the expensive luxury hotel elevator just after 3 am. He yawned into the back of his hand as he watched the doors close again. Then he lowered that hand to check off the floor on the index card Phichit had given him before pressing the button for the next floor.</p>
<p>4 /</p>
<p>2 /</p>
<p>6 /</p>
<p>2 /</p>
<p>10</p>
<p>This was surprisingly boring. For once, Yuuri actually wished his best friend had come up with an embarrassing dare instead of this. So far, the most exciting thing that happened was the low rumbling noise that broke the silence in the compartment…until he realized that it was only his stomach.</p>
<p>He didn’t believe the Elevator Game was a real passage to another world, like Phichit told their friends. It was something dumb teenagers with nothing better to do did to, like when he and his best friend go to the mall on their rare shared rest day to window shop. Of course, he had overheard rumors in high school. This person tried it and barely made it back. That person tried it and was sick for a week. Another person said they were going to try it and vanished. Yet another person claimed to have started it, passed out, and woke up in their bedroom. One person claimed that they knew a couple that tried it together and the man had to be hospitalized after claiming that the “other world” had “taken” his girlfriend.</p>
<p>But between high school, figure skating, and helping at his parents’ onsen, Yuuri never the time to engage in any of the gossip.</p>
<p>A sudden trill ring came from his phone. Yuuri nearly dropped the device as he whipped it out of his pocket. That tune was reserved for his news alerts for Victor Nikiforov, which hadn’t gone off in weeks. Not that it went off that often anyway, but this had to be huge.</p>
<p>ACTIVE SEARCH FOR MISSING RUSSIAN FIGURE SKATER VICTOR NIKIFOROV ENDS</p>
<p>“Russian figure skater”? That’s it? Victor Nikiforov had taken home every gold medal for five consecutive years, including the Olympics. He had five Grand Prix gold medals and four Worlds. He was the most decorated man in figure skating history, Russia’s Living Legend, and that was it?</p>
<p>And how could they just stop searching? This was Victor Nikiforov! Surely there had to be something they could look into, someone they could talk to. Even the vaguest hint from the most questionable source was worth following up on. At least, that was what Yuuri thought and he may have been a little biased.</p>
<p>DING</p>
<p>Tenth floor. Yuuri put the phone back in his pocket as he watched the doors open yet again. He couldn’t wait for this stupid dare to be over. Maybe, once he got out of the elevator, he could go to the 24 hour diner near their dorm and get himself some waffles before telling Phichit that he was done. Maybe some fried chicken and waffles. The diner was known to take their time with their fried chicken. Yuuri thought he deserved to be petty just this once.</p>
<p>Truthfully, Yuuri only just realized that he could have just done that to begin with. They didn’t even come with him to the hotel. Instead, one of the guys (Josh? John? Joe? Yuuri forgot the name) simply dropped him off at the hotel where his girlfriend was a receptionist. Yuuri could have just walked right back out after the car left, called a taxi, and checked off the note card as he enjoyed a nice, warm meal.</p>
<p>With the idea of a plate of crispy fried chicken and waffles with a soda on his mind, Yuuri checked off the tenth floor. Then he saw the next line.</p>
<p>5 – SHE IS NOT REAL PRETEND SHE IS NOT THERE Oo</p>
<p>Yuuri rolled his eyes as he pressed the back lit button for the fifth floor. Of course Phichit would be dramatic about it. The entire time he had been pressing buttons, Yuuri hadn’t seen anyone and didn’t expect to see anyone. Even if he did see someone, Yuuri was not exactly a social butterfly like his best friend. He wouldn’t talk to just anyone.</p>
<p>DING</p>
<p>It wasn’t just anyone standing there when the doors opened. She looked exactly like his mother, all the way down to the stains on her sleeves and the laughter lines on her blank face. It was as though she walked straight out of a photo. Yuuri had to stop himself from saying anything as she passed him to stand in the back of the compartment. She didn’t smell right. Yuuri’s mother smelled like home, fried breading, spices, and her favorite hand lotion. This person didn’t have any scent at all. Nothing. Not even the faintest hint of laundry detergent from her clothes. If he couldn’t feel her cold breath on the back of his neck, Yuuri may have forgotten she was there as he checked off the fifth floor and looked at the last line.</p>
<p>1 – GET OUT DON’T LOOK BACK</p>
<p>Yuuri had no intention of doing otherwise. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Forget the soda. He felt he deserved the strongest drink the diner had to offer after being trapped in the elevator with his mother’s cold look-a-like. Especially when she started mumbling to herself, just loud enough that Yuuri could hear her but not quite figure out what she was saying. It definitely was not Japanese or English, the only languages his mother knew. It didn’t sound like any language he was familiar with.</p>
<p>DIng</p>
<p>The doors were barely open before Yuuri ran out. Finally! Stumbling on his own feet, Yuuri couldn’t help but to think of how disappoint Minako-sensei would have been if she saw how clumsily he threw himself through the still-opening doors into the dark lobby. Strange. Was it this dark when he walked in earlier?</p>
<p>“Where are you going, Yuuri?”</p>
<p>Yuuri stopped. It sounded like his mother back in the elevator, if she were in an echo chamber. The sound of her voice seemed to bounce around the space like a cavern. Only, with each repeat, it grew louder and louder. His instinct told him to turn around, to answer his mother’s question.</p>
<p>Then he was being pulled away by a hand around his wrist. Distracted from the elevator, Yuuri looked instead at the hand wrapped tightly around his wrist. Those hands were dirty and covered in scratches. Yuuri instantly recognized the stained red and white striped cuff that stuck out of the other man’s brown jacket sleeve.</p>
<p>
  <em>No.</em>
</p>
<p>In disbelief, Yuuri’s followed the long arm up to the other man’s broad shoulders then the back of his head. No matter how messy, there was no mistaking that iconic silver hair. “Victor?”</p>
<p>The other man shushed him, turning his head this way and that as he led them to the front desk. He pulled Yuuri around to the other side, then pushed the office chair aside to get both of them underneath. He pulled the chair back into its original position slowly. After another tense moment, Victor wrapped his arms around him, resting his cheek on top of Yuuri’s head, as he said in a hushed tone “You’re so soft and warm!”</p>
<p>Yuuri decided to take the “soft” as a compliment and not an acknowledgement of how out of shape he was for a figure skater. The season was over for him. He could take a break from the athletic diet and enjoy real food for a change. Or maybe “soft” meant something different all together.</p>
<p>Victor turned his face to bury his nose into Yuuri’s hair as he took a deep breath. “You even smell nice!”</p>
<p>This time, Yuuri felt his cheeks grow warm, undoubtedly turning red from embarrassment. Yes, he was glad that he showered that afternoon. He just wished he didn’t use the tea tree shampoo that everyone that came near him said smelled medicinal.</p>
<p><em>‘You’re the one that smells nice,’</em> Yuuri couldn’t help thinking with his cheek pressed into the other’s Olympic jacket. It smelled exactly how he imagined the gold medalist’s jacket would smell. Like ice and fresh cut flowers, with a hint of sweat and expensive cologne. There was also something else buried underneath all of this, but he couldn’t figure it out. It was so familiar. Like he should know what it was, but it just would not come to him.</p>
<p>Compared to the cold air that surrounded them, the warmth from being encircled in Victor’s arms was a comfort. It almost felt like the beginning of every one of Yuuri’s fanboy fantasies and Victor Nikiforov/Reader fan fictions. Except they would be snowed in somewhere for the night and the only hotel room available would <em>(gasp!)</em> only have one bed. Not in a dark hotel lobby that seemed to be devoid of any other life (thus more beds available).</p>
<p>Not that it was completely dark, Yuuri noticed, though it was impossible to tell exactly where the too dim light was coming from. It was like the light came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It reminded Yuuri of the moon, or that one limited edition signed poster he had from when Victor was apparently going through a glow-in-the-dark marker phase.</p>
<p>“Victor,” Yuuri said as he pulled himself to look at the other man. “I found you.”</p>
<p>“You found me?” Victor blinked, then tilted his head at the relief on Yuuri’s face. “I’m missing?”</p>
<p>It was Yuuri’s turn to be confused. “Coach Feltsman reported you missing almost two months ago.” One month, three weeks, and five days, to be exact. Not that Yuuri was counting. He was not that obsessed. He just remembered because he saw the news notification on his phone right before his short program at the Japanese Nationals.</p>
<p>Yuuri watched as Victor visibly processed the information. The Russian man pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket, apparently a habit since the screen didn’t even light up. He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a curse word. Then he looked back up at Yuuri. “It’s not the twenty fourth of December, is it?”</p>
<p>“It’s February twenty first.”</p>
<p>Victor mumbled what sounded like another curse word. Before he could say anything else, the sound of a door slowly creaking open broke the silence around them. Then he pulled Yuuri close again as they heard the footsteps coming closer.</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Victor tightened his hold on Yuuri as the steps grew louder, closer. Yuuri had no choice but to allow himself to be tucked under the other man’s chin, feeling his arms trembling around him. He wrapped his arms around Victor, gripping the back of his outer jacket in his hands. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the smell of the air between them. What was that other scent?</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-SCRAPE</p>
<p>STEP-scrape</p>
<p>Yuuri could hear whoever was passing by the front desk talking to themselves in that same strange language his mother’s look-a-like in the elevator had spoken.</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>The footsteps stopped suddenly on the other side of the large room. The silence seemed to stretch on forever, though it could not have been more than a minute before it was shattered by the elevator’s bell. The two skaters still stayed frozen in each other’s arms until they heard those steps go into the elevator compartment and the doors close again. Then they both released the breaths they didn’t know they had been holding.</p>
<p>“We should move before he gets back,” Victor whispered as he released Yuuri to peek out from their hiding spot.</p>
<p>“Who is he?” Yuuri asked, watching Victor. He noticed that there were handprints and rips in the brown jacket, as though many people had tried to grab the other man. Some of those rips had gone through the outerwear, revealing bits of the Olympic jacket underneath.</p>
<p>Victor only shook his head as he crawled out. After a moment, he gestured for Yuuri to follow.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until Yuuri was standing again that he actually took in their surroundings. The hotel lobby looked as though there had been an explosion. All of the furniture was knocked over. The floor sparkled from all of the shattered glass on top of the wrinkled papers. A red light came in from the empty window frames.</p>
<p>“Let’s go,” Victor whispered as he squeezed Yuuri’s hand.</p>
<p>Yuuri let Victor pull him along again as they ran. He trusted the older man to get them somewhere safe. At the last moment, Yuuri risked a glance back toward the windows. He barely saw the red shape glowing in the distance before Victor pulled him around the corner.</p>
<p>Neither of them saw the office chair slowly turn in their direction.</p>
<p>Or the index card left under the desk.</p>
<p>Soon, the two figure skaters were in what appeared to be a restaurant, after a tornado had blown through. Tables had been overturned. Chairs were on their sides, some in scattered pieces. Silverware laid everywhere. Behind the bar counter, the shelves on the wall had collapsed. When they passed the bar entrance, Yuuri saw all of the glass bottles shattered on the floor in a dark puddle of alcohol.</p>
<p>“Watch your step,” Victor whispered as he took a large step into the kitchen.</p>
<p>Yuuri looked down and saw a line of white powder. He made sure to step over the line. “Salt?”</p>
<p>Victor nodded. “I think it keeps them out.”</p>
<p>“You think?”</p>
<p>This time, Victor shrugged. “It worked for those guys in that TV show,” he explained as he walked toward the other door. He looked down at the other salt line there. Then he paused. “Do you know if they actually find their dad?”</p>
<p>Yuuri felt himself slump onto the surprisingly clean floor. “Where are we?”</p>
<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
<p>Yuuri brought his knees up to his chest. <em>‘Keep it together, Yuuri!</em>’ he thought as he tried to calm down. This was not the time nor place to panic. He needed to stay together. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get Victor out of here. Wherever here was.</p>
<p>After taking some time to regain control of his breathing, thankfully before completely losing control, Yuuri asked, “Are we in another world?”</p>
<p>“Yes.” This may have been the firmest answer Victor had given him.</p>
<p><em>‘We’re going to die,</em>’ Yuuri thought as he covered his face with his hands. Just as he felt his breathing start to quicken, another thought hit him. He started this at a hotel in Detroit, Michigan. This place looked like that hotel. Victor was here with him, in some alternate version of that American hotel. “Why were you in Detroit?”</p>
<p>“I wanted to find you, of course!” Victor announced happily, his heart-shaped smile lighting up his face. Yuuri wished there were photos of the famous skater smiling like that. It was so much better than the usual World Champion Victor Nikiforov smile.</p>
<p>“Why did you want to find me?”</p>
<p>Victor pouted at Yuuri. “I wanted to see you before our Nationals.” Then he tapped his lips. “I guess I missed Nationals. Yakov’s going to kill me.” Then he smiled again. “How did you do? Amazing, right?”</p>
<p>“I placed eleventh.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Was that before or after the weight gain?”</p>
<p>This time, Yuuri knew it was no compliment. He glared over his fingertips and found Victor staring at him. He felt like the other man could somehow see straight through his clothes to the pudgier than usual belly from too many burgers and pizzas. It was embarrassing. Yuri wanted to disappear. He tried to wrap his arms around in legs in hope that it would help hide some of his chubbiness.</p>
<p>After one more sweep with his eyes, Victor shook his head. “You’re going to need to lose weight before we start working on your jumps.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>Just as Victor opened his mouth, they heard noises from the dining room. Chairs shuffled. Glasses clinked together. A champagne bottle popped open. People spoke and laughed, a symphony of voices at various volumes. It reminded Yuuri of Phichit’s New Year’s Eve party, the majority of which he spent moping in his room with the door shut.</p>
<p>Then it was suddenly silent again.</p>
<p>BANG</p>
<p>The back door of the kitchen flew open, hitting the counter hard enough to rattle the cabinet doors. The two skaters watched as the line of salt started to fade, like it was being swept by an invisible broom.</p>
<p>“Yuuri? Where are you?”</p>
<p>Her again. They didn’t see her, but her voice echoed through the kitchen. Like it was actually his mother and they were just playing hide-and-seek at home. Yuuri always hid in the kitchen, under the prep table. He couldn’t help scanning the room until he spotted what must have been this kitchen’s prep table.</p>
<p>That suddenly flew at them.</p>
<p>Yuuri practically tackled Victor, using his weight to force the other man to the side, just before the metal table slammed into the cabinet he had just been sitting in front of. It hit the counter so hard that it rolled back on its wheels about a foot.</p>
<p>“Let’s get out of here,” Yuuri said as he scrambled to his feet.</p>
<p>Victor didn’t need to be told twice, grabbing Yuuri’s hand as he led the way again. He wasn’t going anywhere near the back door again, where they could hear the same voice humming what sounded like a nursery rhyme. He would much rather go back the way they came. Until they were back in the dining room entrance.</p>
<p>The dining room floor was clean. All of the tables and chairs had been arranged as though for a party. Plates of half-to-mostly eaten food sat in front of the chairs next to full glasses of still fizzy champagne. A champagne bottle laid on its side next to a metal pole, liquid still dripping onto the hardwood floor.</p>
<p>Every seat was turned to face the kitchen entrance.</p>
<p>Both skaters stopped. They first looked around at the scene before them, then at each other.</p>
<p>“Yuuri?” Not Yuuri’s mom called.</p>
<p>“Vitya?” A man’s voice called, followed by the step-scrape footstep from behind them.</p>
<p>“”Come back to me!””</p>
<p>They both ran, crashing into chairs as they tried to navigate the far too narrow spaces between them. They may have been more successful if they had let the other’s hand go. Instead, they interlocked their fingers as tight as possible as they tripped and pulled each other back up. It didn’t matter where they ended up, as long as they got there together.</p>
<p>Somehow, they found themselves at a stairwell. The already dim light flickered as its buzzing filled the air. Yuuri wasn’t sure if he preferred that to the easily-broken silence of the rest of the hotel. At least the constant sound kept his ears from searching for a sound, waiting for something to happen.</p>
<p>“I heard him,” Yuuri said as they caught their breath.</p>
<p>“My father,” Victor said between breaths. He leaned against the door with his hands on his bent knees. “That man looks like my father.”</p>
<p>Yuuri watched his idol. He spent most of his life looking up to Victor Nikiforov. He read everything he could about the famous Russian skater. Phichit liked to joke that Yuuri probably knew more about Victor than the skater himself. Yet, Victor’s parents were a mystery. None of the biographies even mentioned his parents’ names. Most people just assumed that his parents were simply uninvolved, estranged even.</p>
<p>The look on Victor’s face said otherwise.</p>
<p>“My father was hit by a car before my senior debut,” Victor said. He lifted a hand to touch the long silver bangs with his fingertips. “I asked him to buy my favorite shampoo on his way home.”</p>
<p>Yuuri remembered Victor’s senior debut season very well. The skater seemed to have vanished from the face of the Earth for the entire summer before. His social media went silent. His coach and rink mates would not comment on him .Paparazzi couldn’t even catch a glimpse of him. Then, when he did reappear, Victor’s beautiful long silver hair had been chopped. Officially, he and his coach claimed it was simply that he felt he was growing too mature for the hair. Fans always suspected there was something else at work, though no one in the chat rooms and blogs ever even suggested something like this.</p>
<p>“I’m so sorry,” was all Yuuri could think to say. What else could he say? Both of his parents were still alive and well. He could tell Victor was likely as close to his father as he was to his parents, who he decided he needed to call as soon as possible. When was the last time he called them? Had it really been over a month?</p>
<p>They stood in relative silence. Suddenly realizing that he had been staring for too long, Yuuri looked away toward a random spot on the wall. Dark shapes stood against the light colored wall leading to and going up the stairs. Shadows of people of various ages and sizes, their faces turned toward the bottom landing. Then, at the top of the first set of steps, he saw a familiar tiny fluffy brown dog. “Vicchan?”</p>
<p>“Huh?” Victor looked up to see Yuuri running up the stairs. For a moment, he froze as he watched the shadows on the walls turn to follow the other man. Then, he noticed the laughter growing another person louder as Yuuri passed their shadow. Louder and louder.</p>
<p>Then Victor felt the door rattle behind him. “Vitya,” a woman’s voice purred from the other side. “It’s time for bed.”</p>
<p>Victor turned and stared at the door. He knew that voice. While he didn’t remember exactly what his mother looked like, he remembered her voice from the message she left on their home phone. He used to secretly listen to it every night after his father went to bed until the phone burned out. It was all he had of her.</p>
<p>Her suicide note.</p>
<p>“YUURI!” Victor shouted as he turned, slipping on his own feet, toward the stairs. He ran up, two at a time. He remembered the drunken whispers from people that had known his parents say that it was a cruel joke for him to be so good at jumps, considering how his mother had taken her life.</p>
<p>Yuuri followed the poodle through the rusty door to the roof, but then stopped in is tracks. Pairs of shoes sat in a neat line straight to the edge. Beyond the roof was…nothing. An empty sea of empty black, illuminated only by a huge red-glowing cross.</p>
<p>At first, Vicchan only ran halfway across the space. He stopped and turned to watch Yuuri. After a moment, the poodle ran to him. He jumped against Yuuri’s leg and gave his thigh a scratch. Then, Vicchan turned and ran at full speed toward that light.</p>
<p>“VICCHAN!” Yuuri shouted as he ran after his poodle. He didn’t notice the shoes he stumbled on as he ran. He didn’t even notice the roof beneath his feet getting shorter. Until his next step fell into open air. For that one terrifying moment, he couldn’t help but to wonder how long that fall was going to take and if that landing was goin to hurt.</p>
<p>Then he was pulled back by a tug on his coat.</p>
<p>Victor had the breath knocked out of him as they both fell back with Yuuri on top. Under different circumstances, Victor could stay like this for much longer. The other man was so warm and smelled so nice. Unfortunately, this was not the time. Not with Yuuri trembling in his arms. They could cuddle later, when they got out.</p>
<p>If they got out.</p>
<p>“I got you,” Victor murmured awkwardly as he patted Yuuri’s head. That works with Makkachin during strong storms and nightmares. Maybe it would work with Yuuri?</p>
<p>Makkachin. If what Yuuri said was true and he had been here for that long, who had Makkachin? He hoped someone had thought to pick her up. Yakov and Chris had copies of his apartment key, plus there was the apartment complex manager. He hoped that whoever had taken his best girl was giving her all the hugs and kisses she deserved, and then some. Though that may be hard since Makkachin deserved all of the hugs and kisses.</p>
<p>Victor pulled himself out from under the younger man then took his hands in his as they stood. A sparkle at the roof’s edge caught his attention. A pair of worn white en pointe ballet slippers with silver thread woven into the bow-tied ribbons sat there. His mother’s last slippers.</p>
<p>“Victor?”</p>
<p>The Russian man looked back at Yuuri. He could feel the younger man’s hands trembling in his, both from the cold air and the same fear he felt. Those big brown eyes were glossy from tears that threatened to fall at any moment. “Let’s go back inside.”</p>
<p>Yuuri nodded. He let the other man pull his hand back as he lead the way again. Instead, he held the other hand in both of his. That hand gave one of his a reassuring squeeze. He looked up at the back of Victor’s head and couldn’t help smiling at the fact that his silver hair appeared slightly pink in the strange light behind them. He would look good with pink hair.</p>
<p>STOMP</p>
<p>Neither wanted to look. They wanted to just go through the door, to get back in the hotel. They didn’t want to know what they just heard was. Both men felt the need to look back.</p>
<p>None of the shoes had moved as they had expected. Instead, they were filled with shadow people. The dark shadow-like shapes were slightly transparent, like layers of black tulle. They stood completely still, looking straight ahead into the distance. The cross’s light started to pulse, growing brighter and brighter.</p>
<p>Victor dove through the door, pulling the other man with him. He almost had the door completely closed behind them when a red light flashed through the crack. Even after the door finally closed all the way, the strip of light seemed to glow on the floor of the long hallway.</p>
<p>Hallway? They both looked around, watching as all of the doors slowly opened by themselves. Then, all of the doors except one slammed shut. In the one door that remained opened, something sat in the opening. Victor noticed the room number on the door closest to them and realized exactly where they were. “That’s my room.”</p>
<p>Yuuri looked at the shape in doorway. “That’s my dog?”</p>
<p>At the sound of Yuuri’s voice, the poodle turned. In the dark hall, the dog’s strangely large eyes glowed bright red.</p>
<p>“That is not your dog!” Victor shouted, jumping at the sight of those eyes. Sure, he had seen cat eyes flash green, which he thought was just weird. He knew that was not normal. He had never seen Makkachin’s eyes glow like that and, judging from Yuuri ducking behind him, he had never seen that either.</p>
<p>Vicchan stared at the frightened humans. There was something off about that stare. It didn’t feel like the type of gaze that they were used to from dogs or cats. Those glowing eyes just stared…like those porcelain dolls wearing frilly Victorian dresses in those horror movies.</p>
<p>Then, with a bark, the poodle started running to them.</p>
<p>“Open the door. Open the door. YUURI OPEN THE DOOR!” Victor shouted, frantically patting the younger man’s shoulder faster and faster. He never thought he would be trying to run from a dog, especially one that small, but that was no normal dog. Nope. He wanted nothing to do with this particular dog. Not with those eyes and those teeth.</p>
<p>“It’s locked!” Yuuri shook the doorknob with both of his. Then he looked up.</p>
<p>On the other side of the door, a woman stared into the window. Her long black hair fell in her face, though it didn’t hide her completely black eyes or her wide grin. Too wide. Like her smile had split her face from ear to ear. Her mouth was full of sharp – looking teeth tinged with blood. She pressed a bloodied hand on the window. She was missing her pinky and ring finger.</p>
<p>Yuuri shook his head. Then he grabbed Victor’s hand as he ran. They both easily jumped over the charging poodle, who slammed into the door just seconds later. Ignoring the whimpering, they continued to the only open door. They dove into Victor’s room and slammed the door shut behind them.</p>
<p>Except they didn’t step into a hotel suite, as they had expected, but at the hotel pool. All of the poolside tables and chairs were gone. The air was far too cold, reminding both men of ice rinks. When they looked, they saw that the pool water was frozen, just like the ice they were so used to skating on.</p>
<p>Expect it was a solid block of deep red.</p>
<p>“We need to get out of here,” Yuuri mumbled.</p>
<p>“I’ve been trying for hours…days?” Victor replied. He knew how to get back. He remembered reading how to get back on his phone. The problem was his phone stopped working. “We have to get back to the elevator.”</p>
<p>Truthfully, Yuuri didn’t want to go back in there. He did not want to set foot in another elevator again for the rest of his life. Stairs were good for his legs, right? Maybe he can request a room close to the bottom floor at the hotels during future events.</p>
<p>But he could do it one more time with Victor.</p>
<p>“And then?”</p>
<p>“We have to go to the floors again.” Victor’s shoulders dropped. “I don’t remember what order they go in.”</p>
<p>“My roommate wrote it for me,” Yuuri said, silently promising to thank Phichit as soon as they got back. He owed the Thai skater, big time. He just hoped his best friend wouldn’t demand permission to finally post that photo of him pole dancing. Not that it was a bad photo. It was actually one of Yuuri’s favorites, but what would the public think if they knew he did that? The Japanese Skating Federation? Victor?</p>
<p>Then Yuuri felt the inside of his coat pocket. Nothing. He tried the other pocket. Nothing. He tried his jeans pockets. Just his wallet and keys. For a moment, he just stared at the floor. At the dark footprints and the trail of drops leading to the pool. Then he looked up, his eyes catching Victor’s as the older man watched him expectantly, as he made himself say, “I dropped it.”</p>
<p>“Boys!” A woman’s voice sweetly called, her voice echoing eerily as though from a tunnel. “Come to me, pretty boys?”</p>
<p>Then they heard scraping. It almost reminded them of their ice skates on the ice, but not quite. The sounds were too short, too consistent, like whoever it was managed to stay in exactly the same spot.</p>
<p>Then they looked up and saw her. The woman from the roof. She stood in the middle of the frozen pool under two beams of white light. From where her shadow laid on the dark red ice, dark hands reached out as though trying to grab the slick surface to escape. Instead, their nails barely scratched the ice as their fingers slipped off.</p>
<p>The woman held a bloody knife in her hands.</p>
<p>Then, she suddenly stood in front of Victor and Yuuri. “Stay close to me!”</p>
<p>They both turned to run, but slipped. Finding themselves laying on the ice, Victor and Yuuri realized that the woman hadn’t moved at all. They had been moved onto the frozen pool. A seemingly bottomless pool full of frozen blood, the surface of which had cracked from their fall. Hands appeared under the layer of ice, pressing on pounding on it. Then faces appeared.</p>
<p>Their own faces.</p>
<p>With far less grace than two international-level figure skaters – especially one five time Grand Prix and four time World Champion – should have on the ice, they scrambled to get away. The ice crackled under them with their every movement, threatening to break. Every time they looked down, they saw their look-a-likes following them like reflections, desperately fighting to not drown in the pool of blood. The entire time, the woman’s laughter echoed around them.</p>
<p>Victor made it off the ice first. He just pulled himself onto the solid ground when he heard a splash. He turned and saw that the ice had broken just behind Yuuri. A silhouette of the Japanese skater had pulled itself halfway out of the hole, its hands wrapped around Yuuri’s ankle as it pulled back.</p>
<p>“YUURI!” Victor shouted as he grabbed one of his hands with both of his. He planted his feet, crouching as low as he could without losing his balance. “Do you trust me?”</p>
<p>“Victor!” Yuuri semi-gasped as he wrapped his other hand around the ones holding his. He felt the cold hand on his ankle, the freezing blood soaking through his pant leg and sock. He felt himself being dragged backward, toward the hole in the ice. Already he felt as though he couldn’t catch his breath. If he got pulled into that hole, there would be no breath to catch.</p>
<p>And Victor was asking if he trusted him. Did he really have a choice? Yuuri simply nodded.</p>
<p>“KICK!” Victor shouted just a second before he jumped back.</p>
<p>Victor fell on his back, Yuuri once again on top of him. He felt the other man shaking in his arms. He could feel him gasping against his chest, every breath sounding more frantic than the last. He sat up, forcing Yuuri to sit as well. “Did you get hurt? Are you-”</p>
<p>Suddenly, Yuuri pushed him away. He pulled his knees up to his chest, his fingers pulling at his own hair. His eyes were directed at the floor, though he didn’t really see the floor. Instead, he saw the dark edges around his vision as it closed in, as the tears ran down his cheeks. This was it. He was going to die here. Victor was going to realize that he would just slow him down and leave him. He had lost the one thing that made him worth anything to Victor, and now his anxiety had caught up to him.</p>
<p>Then Yuuri found himself wrapped in warmth, surrounded by the scent of Victor Nikiforov. When he looked up, Victor watched him very carefully. Confused. Like Yuuri was some puzzle he was struggling to solve. Somehow, seeing Russia’s Living Legend staring like that was kind of funny. Then Victor Nikiforov tilted his head to the side exactly like Vicchan used to and Yuuri lost it.</p>
<p>What started as a breathless chuckle soon evolved into loud laughter. Then, both the sound of both of them laughing echoed around them in the kitchen.</p>
<p>Kitchen.</p>
<p>“Oh come on!” Victor shouted when he realized where they had fallen this time. In his exasperation, his Russian accent came out far more pronounced than usual, making Yuuri laugh even harder. He could only stare as the Japanese man wearing his coat laughed at him. “What?”</p>
<p>“You sound exactly like that guy in that movie with the minions,” Yuuri replied when he finally calmed his laughter down enough.</p>
<p>“Minions?” Victor asked.</p>
<p>“I know you’ve had to seen them! They’re little…” Yuuri stopped himself. This did not seem like the right place to explain it. Also, the last thing he really wanted to do was accidentally summon anything like that here. Something told him they would not be as friendly in this world. If Vicchan was like that. He shivered at the thought. Or was that the cold? He looked down at the brown jacket now draped around his shoulders like a blanket. “Ah…thank you. Do you want this back?”</p>
<p>Victor smiled as he shook his head. “It looks good on you.”</p>
<p>“But it’d cold?”</p>
<p>“I’ll take it off you later,” Victor said with a wink. Then he stood and smirked at the other man as he semi-sang, “The cold never bothered me anyway.”</p>
<p>While it was not at the top, Victor Nikiforov quoting a Disney movie was definitely up there on the list of weird things that Yuuri Katsuki had witnessed. Oh did he have so much to tell Phichit when they got back. After they stopped by that diner. He was hungry and he was sure Victor was starving. Food would be nice before introducing him to his excitable best friend who was sure to want a thousand selfies.</p>
<p>Going to the diner alone after this didn’t count as a date, right?</p>
<p>“Truthfully, seeing you like that reminds me of Sochi,” Victor said as he pulled Yuuri up to his feet.</p>
<p>“Eh?” Sochi? What part of Sochi? The part where he performed his free program in front of millions both in the stands and watching on live international television like he just learned to skate and finished last? The part where he rejected the commemorative photo with the man standing in front of him now? Or the part where he drowned himself in expensive champagne that went down far too smoothly at the ISU banquet? Oh god. Did Victor Nikiforov see him get dragged back to his room drunk? Did Victor Nikiforov drag him back to his room drunk?</p>
<p>“You should have seen Yakov when he saw the photos. I thought he’d have a stroke right there.” Even in the dim lighting, Victor looked far too amused by the memory.</p>
<p>Photos. There were photos. Photos of something that Yuuri had no memory of. Something that clearly made the already intimidating-looking Russian coach mad enough to nearly have a stroke. Suddenly, Yuuri was not entirely sure he wanted to know the details.</p>
<p>“Oh! I have one in my wallet!”</p>
<p>Yuuri froze as Victor leaned closer to him, his silver bangs brushing against his cheek, as he reached into the coat pocket. Yuuri caught the scent of the other man’s shampoo. Tea tree extract. He couldn’t help blushing when he realized that it smelled exactly like the shampoo he used. Despite this, he liked how it smelled on the Russian man more. Though subtle compared to the expensive cologne and sweat that clung to the Olympic jacket, that almost medicinal scent felt as comforting as the warmth of their cheeks touching. As comforting as the hand against his hip, though separated by layers of fabric.</p>
<p>Yuuri nearly jumped when he felt the quick kiss on his cheek before Victor pulled away. A part of him wanted to pull him back. To give him a real kiss. Even if Yuuri had never kissed anyone before. Surely Victor Nikiforov was a great kisser. His eyes lingered on the other man’s lips, watching them move as he spoke. He heard him talking, but didn’t quite process the words. How did his lips look to soft?</p>
<p>“This was my favorite!” Victor announced proudly as he pulled the laminated wallet-sized print out.</p>
<p>[Yuuri has Victor in a dip, supporting him only by a hand on his outstretched leg and the other on the side of his head. Their faces are just inches apart as they laugh through their dance.]</p>
<p>“EH?!” Yuuri’s shout echoed around them as he took the photo. He stared at the image as realization swept over him. It was one of those nights where Drunk Yuuri Katsuki made an appearance. He looked over the image, thankful that he at least had most of his clothes on. Drunk Yuuri wasn’t usually fond of being dressed.</p>
<p>“Oh! I forgot this one! Chris sent it to me.”</p>
<p>[Yuuri holding the pole with one hand as he pours a bottle of champagne. He’s only wearing his necktie, briefs, and dress socks]</p>
<p>Ah. There’s the Drunk Yuuri Katsuki that ruined Sober Yuuri Katsuki’s reputation. As in he (and by extension Phichit) were invited to every party on campus, and most of the off campus ones as well.</p>
<p>Then, Yuuri looked closely at both images. Mainly, at the walls and flooring in the backgrounds. They looked familiar. Not in the generic every-banquet-hall-looks-the-same type of way. He walked to the kitchen door and peeked out at the dining room. Rather, the Sochi banquet hall. Only this time, there were shadows on the walls. Two figures dancing parallel to each other, though moving closer with every step.</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Step-scrape</p>
<p>Both skaters looked at each other. Then Yuuri saw the door open on the other side of the kitchen. The man that walked in looked pretty normal at first. He looked a lot like an older Victor, but with a little more weight and a little less hair.</p>
<p>Then he completely stepped into the kitchen. Half of his body was covered in blood that had spilled from his smashed skull. His leg was bent the wrong way in several places. Every one of his fingers on that side’s hand was bent wrong as well. “Vitya,” he said in a raspy voice as he lifted his other hand, which  held a plastic bag. “U menya yest’ tvoy shampun’.”</p>
<p>Yuuri saw the look on Victor’s face as the man tried to not turn around. He knew a part of him wanted to turn around, to make sure that wasn’t actually his father. He saw the regret there, the guilt. Surely, Victor must have seen this version of his father in this world. He reached out to the older skater to hold one of his tightly-clenched fists.</p>
<p>“HE IS MINE!” The not-Victor’s-father shouted as he suddenly tried to grab the Olympic jacket with his shattered hand. Yuuri managed to pull Victor out of the kitchen into the dining room just in time, though the sleeve of his jacket ripped at the shoulder seam.</p>
<p>They heard the echos of music all around them. It sounded disjointed and distant, as though it was being played in several different places just seconds off each other in another room.</p>
<p>“Our song.”</p>
<p>“What?” Yuuri turned to Victor.</p>
<p>“We danced to this song,” The Russian explained with a fond smile.</p>
<p>“We danced a salsa to this?” This was far from his choice for that type of dance. A fox trot or swing were possibilities for this song. Not salsa. He felt salsa was better suited to a piece with classical guitar and a nice violin.</p>
<p>Victor watched the shadows on the wall. He squinted his eyes as he studied their movements very carefully. Then they went wide as realization hit him. “They’re us.”</p>
<p>Yuuri turned to look at the figures – their silhouettes – repeating their dance from the night he couldn’t remember. Instead, his eyes fell on the little bit of white on the floor between the dancers’ figures. “The note!”</p>
<p>“The note?” Victor repeated. What note? He knew there was something important that Yuuri dropped, Something his friend had written for him. Was that it? Strangely, he couldn’t think of why it was so important. At that moment, he just wanted to watch the shadows act out his memory. Maybe even recreate it. Maybe that would help Yuuri remember what was the most amazing banquet of all time.</p>
<p>Yuuri nodded as he said, “The floors are on that card.”</p>
<p>Right. They needed to get out. That tiny card was the key to them getting back to their world. A world Victor suddenly was not so sure he wanted to go back to. Yes, their world was safe. Yes, nothing scary waited for them out there. But here, he had Yuuri Katsuki. In this dark world, it was okay to want to stay close to Yuuri. Back in their world, he was sure to lose him, right? He had to go back to Saint Petersburg to face the wraith of Yakov while Yuuri had to stay in Detroit to finish his classes (which he did not learn about from internet stalking while drunk on rosé).</p>
<p>But then Yuuri’s fingers slipped away from his hand as he stepped forward, pulling the brown coat tighter. Victor instantly felt the chill in the air, numbing his fingers as bad as when he walked Makkachin in the dead of winter without gloves. He could manage. He always managed in the cold. Victor could see Yuuri struggling to keep warm, even with the two jackets. He had to get Yuuri out, even if he lost him after.</p>
<p>Victor stepped next to Yuuri and slipped his hand into his, smiling when he felt the other man squeeze his hand. Maybe he wouldn’t lose him after all.</p>
<p>Cautiously, they crept toward the index card on the floor. As they got closer, the air felt colder and colder. Yuuri couldn’t help shivering. Clenching his teeth only resulted in his jaw aching. He felt Victor shivering next to him as well. So much for the cold not bothering him. “D-d-do you w-want your coat b-b-b-back-k?”</p>
<p>Victor shook his head. “You need it more.”</p>
<p>Yuuri shook his head. That Olympic jacket was not warm. He knew those jackets were practically just for show. Still, something told him that Victor would not take his other coat back just yet. So, Yuuri did the next best thing. He pulled the other man closer and wrapped that half of the jacket around him. It was very tight and they had to wrap an arm around the other’s waist for it to semi-work, but at least they were warmer.</p>
<p>Soon, they were close enough. Neither wanted to let the other go so they both crouched down to the floor. The moment Yuuri’s fingers touched the lost card, the music stopped with a loud scratch.</p>
<p>SCRAPE</p>
<p>The two skaters looked up to find themselves in a circle of chairs. The backs of the chairs were covered in dark splatters, with empty spaces in the shape of people. A pair of bloodied shoes sat in front of every one.</p>
<p>Then the chairs collapsed into themselves, falling onto the blood-stained floor.</p>
<p>“Yuuri!”</p>
<p>“Vitya!”</p>
<p>“Pretty boys!”</p>
<p>Hearing those three voices again, Victor and Yuuri shot up and ran as fast as they could. They went around the corner. The they went around again. And again. And again. Then they both stopped.</p>
<p>“Pretty boys,” the woman breathed down the back of their necks. Her breath felt like icicles down their spines. “Stay with me.”</p>
<p>Yuuri whipped around, slashing his card like a knife. It was the only thing he could think to do. He didn’t expect it to go through her face. He didn’t expect her skin to peel away like a banana peel. He definitely didn’t expect to see a skull filled with red light. A red light that pulsed brighter and brighter.</p>
<p>“Come on! Victor shouted as he pulled the other man away.</p>
<p>Around the same corner one more time and they finally found themselves in the lobby. Large wreaths of wilted flowers were left on rusty stands in two rows leading to the elevator. Incense sticks burned in front of the black-framed photos of themselves on either side of the slowly closing doors, their smoke curling into an impossibly large that hovered low over everything. The athletes couldn’t stop coughing as they ran, ignoring the flowers displays as they crashed into the floor.</p>
<p>They dove into the elevator and turned in time to see the woman come around the corner. Victor held Yuuri close as the other man frantically pressed the close doors button. They both expected her to try to make a run for it, or maybe just appear in front of the doors. Instead, they watched as the red light in her skull went almost completely out as her chest filled up.</p>
<p>Victor turned Yuuri and pressed his face against his chest, burying his own face into the dark hair. Even with his eyes shut tight, he saw the bright flash of red as the woman screamed. Then the doors finally closed all the way.</p>
<p>“Thank you.” Yuuri mumbled, staring at the wall behind Victor. There, the wall had been dramatically lightened everywhere except where their bodies had blocked the flash.</p>
<p>“Take me on a date and we’re even,” Victor replied with a smile. He liked watching Yuuri Katsuki blush.</p>
<p>Yuuri nodded, peeking down at the index card before pressing the first number.</p>
<p>When the doors opened on the fourth, second, and sixth floors, groups of shadow people stood watching with glowing red eyes.</p>
<p>On the second floor again, it was Not-Yuuri’s mother, with a bowl of scent-less katsudon in her hands.</p>
<p>On the tenth floor, it was Vicchan, his eyes bright red as dark liquid dripped from is eyes and mouth.</p>
<p>On the fifth floor, it was Victor’s father, who still held the bag containing his teenage son’s favorite shampoo.</p>
<p>Then, after the doors they both stared at the last number. 1. That was where they left that woman. If this didn’t work, would she still be there, waiting for them? “Together?” Yuuri asked, to which Victor nodded. Then they pressed the button.</p>
<p>And the elevator started going up.</p>
<p>“What’s happening?” Yuuri shouted as he watched the floor numbers go up.</p>
<p>“I think this is supposed to happen?” Victor mumbled. Just in case he was wrong though, he kissed the top of the other man’s head, inhaling the scent of Yuuri Katsuki, before pressing the first floor button again.</p>
<p>After a moment, the elevator started going down.</p>
<p>DING</p>
<p>The doors slid open to a brightly lit hotel lobby. People lingered in the large area, sipping on paper coffee cups as they waited with their luggage. In the middle of all of it, Phichit stood wringing his hands together nervously as he spoke to an exhausted looking police officer. He threw his hands towards the elevator. Then stopped to do a double take. “OH MY GOD! YUURI!”</p>
<p>Yuuri barely made it out of the elevator before he was tackled by his best friend. He could smell the coffee he had surely spilled on himself at some point and knew that they were back. “Phichit-kun!”</p>
<p>“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I WAS SO WORRIED!” Phichit shouted as he wiped away his tears. Then he saw the man holding his best friend’s hand. “VICTOR NIKIFOROV?!”</p>
<p>After Victor’s phone finally charged at the diner (because they were all starving, especially the Russian skater), he finally called his coach outside while Yuuri told Phichit everything. By the time he finished, the Thai skater had decided that they should try a board game next time. Victor returned looking a little shocked and told them that his coach didn’t yell at him for being missing for so long. Not yet, at least. And that he already had a flight booked for Russia the next morning.</p>
<p>Victor and Yuuri went to bed together that night. They whispered ideas to each other to think about once Victor was settled back in Russia. They didn’t need to decide anything right away. They finally exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. Still, they laid in each other’s arms, savoring their time together in Yuuri’s brightly lit bedroom until they both fell asleep</p>
<p>DING</p>
<p>Victor and Yuuri awoke in the dark, their bed surrounded by shadow people with glowing  red eyes….</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote most of this on an iPhone 11 with a foldable Bluetooth keyboard because my computer died. </p>
<p>Happy Halloween!<br/>-EnigmaOfShipwreckIsland</p></blockquote></div></div>
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